Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-03-04
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Ransomed from the Bonds Of
Miquity.
The Debt Human Nature Owes to the AL
mighty Paid by Christ in I~nstailments-
Y Are Bought with Il Price,

4sS ~ps - - 0A5 'As -
price,"
Your friend takes You through his valua-
BILE house. You examine the arches, the
fresco, the grass plots. the fish ponds, the
conservatories, the parks of deer, and you
say within yourself, or you say aloud:
''What did all this cost" You see costly
apparel, or you see a high-mettled span Of
horses harnessed with silver and gold, and
YOU begin to make an estimate of the value.
The man who owns a large estate cannot
instantly tell you what it is all worth. He
says: Il will estimate so much for the
house, so much for the furniture, SO much
for laying out the grounds, SO much for the
stock, so much for the barn. SO much for
the eauipage-adding up, in all making
this aggregate" .
Well, my friends, I hear SO much about
our mansion in heaven, about its furniture
and the grand surroundings, that I wan to
know how much it is all worth, and what
has actually been paid for it. 1 cannot
complete in a month or q year the magnifi-
cent calculation; but before I get through
to-day l hope to give you the figures. "Ye
are bought with a price,"
With some friends 1 went into London
Tower to look at The crown jewels of Eng
land. We walked around, caught one
glimpse of them, and being in the process
sion were compelled to pass out. l wish
that to-day l could take this audience into
the tower of Gods mercy and strength,
that you might walk around Just once at
least and see the crow jewels Of eternity,
behold their bri]liance and estimate their
if you have a large amount Of money to
pay, you do not pay it all at once, but you
pay it by installments-so much the LIST of
January, SO much the LIST of April, SO much
the LIST of July, SO much the LIST of October,
until the entire amount is paid: And 1
have to tell this audience that "You have
been bought with q price," and that that
price was in different installments.
The first installment paid for the clear
ance of our souls was the ignominious
birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Though we
may never be carefully looked after after
ward, our advent into the world is carefully
guarded. We come into the world amid
kindly attentions. Privacy and silence are
afforded when God launches an immortal
soul into the world. Even the toughest
of men know enough to stand back. But
I have to tell you that in the village on the
side of the hill there was a bedlam of up
roar whan Jesus was born. In a village
capable of accommodating only a few nun
bred people many thousand people were
crowded; and amid hostlers n muleteers,
and camel drivers yelling at stupid beasts
of burden, the Messiah appeared. No ST.
lence. No privacy. A better adapted place
hath the eaglet in the eyrie-hath the whelp
in the lions lair. The exile of heaven lieth
down upon the straw. The first night out
from the palace of heaven spent in an out
house. One hour after laying aside the
robes of heaven, dressed in a wrapper of
coarse linen. One would have supposed
that Christ would have made a more grad
ual descent, coming from heaven first to q
halfway world of great magnitude, then
to Caesars palace, then to a merchants
castle in Galilee, then to a private home in
Bethany, then to a fisherman's hut, and
leap from the top to the bottom.
Let us open the doors of the caravansary
in Bethlehem and drive away the camels.
Press on through the group of idlers and
loungers. What, 0 Mary, no light? mo
light" she says, "save that which comes
through the doo1." What, Mary, no food?
None" she says, "only that which is
brought in the sack on the Journey" Let
the Bethlehem who has come in
here with kindly affection put back the
covering from the babe that we may look
upon it. Look! look! Uncover your head.
Let us kneel. Let all voices be hushed.
Son of Mary! Son of God! Child of a
day-monarch Of eternity! In that eye
the glance of a God. O~mnipotence
sheathed in that babe's arm. That voice
tone that shall wake the dead. Hosanna!
Hosanna! Glory be to God that Jesus
came from throne to manager that we might
rise from manger to throne, and that all
the gates are open, and that the door of
heaven that once swung this way to let
Jesus out now swings the other way to let
us in. Let all the bellmen of heaven lay
hold of the rope and ring out the news:
behold, I bring you glad tidings of great
Joy. which shall be to all people; for to-
day is born in the city of David q Savior
which is Christ the Lord!"
The second installment paid for our
souls clearance was the scene in Quaran-
tania, a mountainous region full of cav
ems, where there are to this day panthers
and wild beasts of all sorts; so that you
must now, the traveller says, 60 there armed
with knife or gun or pistol. 1t was there
was there that this monster of he'll, more
sly, more terrific than anything that prowled
in that country-Satan himself, met Christ.
The rose in the cheek of Christ-that
Publius Lentulus, in his letter to the Ro-
man Senate, ascribed to Jesus-that rose
had scattered its petals. Abstinence from
food had thrown him into emaciation. The
longest abstinence from food recorded in
profane history is that of the crew of the
ship Juno; for twenty-three days they had
nothing to eat. But this sufferer had
tasted a month and ten days before he
broke fast.
Hunger must have agonized every fiber
of the body and gnawed on the stomach
with teeth of death, The thought Of a
morsel of bread or meat must have thrilled
the body with something like ferocity.
Turn out a pack of men hungry as Christ
was a-hungered, and if they had strength,
with n yell they would devour you as a
lion a kid. It was in that pang of hunger
that Jesus was accosted, and Satan said:
Nov change these stones, which look like
bread, into a supply of bread" Had the
temptation come to you or me under those
circumstances, we would have cried, Bread
it shall be-" and been almost impatient at
the time taken for mastication: but Christ
with one hand beat back the hunger, and
with the other hand beat the monarch of
darkness. 0, ye tempted ones! Christ
was tempted. We are told that Napoleon
ordered q coat of mail made, but he was
not quite certain that it was impenetrable,
SO he said to the manufacturer of that coat
of mail: PUT it on now yourself and let
us try it," and with shot after shot from his
own pistol the Emperor found out that it
was Just what it pretended to be-a good
coat OF mail. Then the man received a